LEADERS, UNIONS REMAIN DIVIDED OVER LABOR PACT

San Diego 
There’s a deep divide between city leaders and employee unions over what it will take to reach a five-year labor pact that nearly everyone at City Hall calls a top fiscal priority.

The two sides last met two weeks ago and talks have stalled. Unions want a 14.5 percent across-the-board salary increase for all workers spread over five years while the city is offering 6 percent.

Frustrated by the lack of progress, five of the city’s six employee unions gathered outside City Hall on Wednesday to lobby for their version of a deal that they say would free up $82 million for services in the city budget during a five-year period.

At issue is whether the city will solidify the five-year freeze on workers’ pensionable pay that was called for in Proposition B, an initiative to overhaul the pension system that two-thirds of voters approved last June. The measure faces a legal challenge and could be overturned, so Mayor Bob Filner and the City Council want to negotiate a freeze to generate the projected $1 billion in long-term savings it would bring in the form of lower annual pension payments.

The unions are seeking a 14.5 percent across-the-board salary increase for all city workers phased in over five years. In exchange, they would agree to a freeze on pensionable pay — the portion of salary that would apply to a future pension — during the same period.